Reed Swier works at The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, an NYU Steinhardt department, focused on promoting equity and opportunity in education. Currently, his work with Metro’s Innovations in Equity and Systemic Change (IESC) focuses on building capacity for educational institutions in understanding systems of inequality that disproportionally impact students.
Reed is a Michigan native who has taught for 10 years in elementary schools in Oakland, California and New York City. As the Director of School Culture and Family Engagement at East Harlem Scholars Academy, Reed supported staff, students and families by promoting culturally responsive teaching and developing a school culture philosophy and practice imbedded in restorative approaches.
In 2018, Reed spent 7 months in Scotland as a Fulbright Scholar, participating in the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching program. In Scotland, Reed worked with local educators and University of Edinburgh students and faculty around issues of racial identity, whiteness and restorative practices. Under the advisement of Dr. Rowena Arshad, Reed partnered with the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland (CERES) and the MSc cohort in Transformative Learning and Teaching. During this time, he carried out an inquiry project, creating a handbook for educators titled: Starting with Self: A Restorative Approach to Engaging with School Communities.
Reed holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan, an M.S. in Teaching grades 1-6 from Pace University and an M.Ed in Learning and Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
This is a personal blog. All views and information presented herein are my own and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State.
